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Dessert

Dutch Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, treacle, sour milk, flour, sugar, raisins, eggs, spices, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dutch Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter until creamy, then add the sugar and beat until well combined.

  2. Mix in the treacle and beat again.

  3. Stir in the raisins, allspice, and nutmeg.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add them to the mixture.

  5. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk, then add it to the mixture alternately with the flour.

  6. Mix thoroughly and pour into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 2 hours.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Treacle
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and a dark colour to the cake.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk and adding it alternately with the flour. Baking soda needs an acid to react and produce rising gas. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk spreads it evenly, and alternating with the flour keeps the batter smooth so the cake rises evenly and does not turn dense or patchy.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, flour, sugar, raisin, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, flour, sugar, raisin, egg, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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